YPDP and the U.S. Mission to the EU hosted a breakfast roundtable discussion on U.S. surveillance reform with Alex Joel (Civil Liberties Protection Officer, U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence) on 28th January at the U.S. Mission to the EU.

Mr Joel’s explained how his office ensures that the protection of privacy and civil liberties is appropriately incorporated in the U.S. Intelligence Community. Participants had a lot of questions and we had a lively discussion which also discussed the how many European Member States are enacting new surveillance laws in response to the threat from terrorism.

In this first YPDP guest blog, we meet Pauline Gounaud, the policy adviser for the S&D group in ITRE. She has, over recent years, been involved in the lengthy Telecom Single Market trialogues, as well as the Digital Single Market strategy. (The views expressed are entirely her own and do not engage the S&D group).

What first got you into the digital sector – purpose or coincidence?

A real coincidence. Initially, I wanted to work on environmental issues and during my first traineeship in Brussels I was working on sustainability and climate change. However when looking for a position in the European Parliament, there was no opening in the ENVI committee, but there was a position in ITRE… So I took the position. When I started with ITRE I was the youngest so I was naturally allocated the responsibility of digital issues. I didn’t even have a smartphone at that point. Now I consider myself lucky, because I really enjoy it – the joys of coincidences!